TCFF Day 5 and 6 Highlights: MN Shorts, Ghost Light, The Armstrong Lie documentary, They Will Outlive Us All

Here are what’s in store for Day 5 and Day 6 at TCFF. As you can see, there’s something cool to look forward to every single day, and there’s always something for everyone! I’m a bit sidelined by a cold today so I had to skip one of the films I had gotten a ticket for. But hey, there are still a bunch of films in store for this week so I’m taking LOTS of vitamins so I can be on the up and up again covering for TCFF 😀

DAY 5 Highlights – Oct 21

MN Shorts Part 1

Showing: Monday, October 21st at 6:15 pm

A collection of best shorts from the state of MN

The Tale of Cuthbert – 5 minutesCuthbert is a zombie who just doesn’t fit in with the other zombies. His brother is the leader and tries to teach Cuthbert the techniques to being a better zombie. But can Cuthbert change who he is? Or will he be banished?

Dead of Winter – 8 minutesRunning low on supplies needed for her survival, Bethany Stevens (Lisie Krohnfeldt) is forced to venture out into an inhospitable world full of frozen zombies, bitter cold and loneliness.

The Gold Sparrow – 13 minutesSet in a crumbling black-and-white futuristic metropolis, void of creativity and color, the city is traversed by The Gold Sparrow and her nefarious side kick, The Ring Leader.

The First Date – 36 minutesHow far will fate go? Jack and Rachel are about to find out. Destined to be soul mates, these two are embarking on a lifelong love. There’s only one problem – they have to get past their first date.

A Letter Home – 4 minutesAn isolated man maintains hope in a hopeless situation. A LETTER HOME is Karl Warnke’s directorial debut.

Clutch – 4 minutesTommy has been made an offer he literally cannot refuse. “One ball, one strike and I’ll let you live”.

Duluth is Horrible– 17 minutesA series of vignettes chronicling a few lonely people in Duluth, MN searching for a connection in a bleak winter.

Ghost Light

Showing: Monday, October 21st at 8:45 pm

Special Guests: John Gaspard (Director) & Cast and Crew

When a key prop goes missing during an amateur theater company performance, the actors suspect the theater ghosts are acting up. The group decides to spend the night in the eccentric old building, watching for paranormal activity.

This feature was filmed at Theatre in the Round here in Minneapolis. Here’s the 30-second preview:

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Joe from the MN Movie Man Blog calls it ‘…an enjoyably well-put together film… Though its pretense may suggest a spooky ghost tale, this is a delicate, well-observed drama that has its heart, mind, and earthly spirit in the right place.’ Read the full review »

DAY 6 Highlights – Oct 22

The Armstrong Lie

Tuesday, October 22, 2013 at 6:30pm

Directed by Alex Gibney

Four years ago, Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks) was commissioned to film Lance Armstrong’s second comeback, for the 2009 Tour de France. Years later, following Armstrong’s cheating confessions, Gibney returned to his original source material, discovering in the process an electrifying, red-handed portrait of a liar in action.

This is one of the documentary I was looking forward to the most and certainly is the most high profile playing at TCFF. Gibney is an Oscar winner and is no stranger to tackling a hot-button topic (ENRON, Wikileaks) and has won an Oscar for Taxi to The Dark Side, an exposé on the treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan, Iraq and Cuba. I find the shift in focus of this documentary from a comeback story to one of the biggest scandal in the world of sport is particularly intriguing. It’s interesting that the producers of the film were initially big fans of Armstrong.

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They Will Outlive Us All

Showing: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 at 9:30pm

Directed by Patrick Shearer

In the years since Hurricane Sandy, New York has been brought to its knees by a series of “Frankenstorms”. Roommates Margot and Daniel attempt to survive this “new” New York by avoiding it at all costs. But with the advent of three strange deaths in their Brooklyn building, the world they’ve been hiding from is knocking hard on the back door. It’s time for our heroes to kill their TV, lay off the booze, and put out the roach… Or all of NYC could fall into the clutches of something that can’t even clutch.

Hi Steven! Hmmm I never thought about Sheryl Crow knowing about the doping but yeah she must have known right? I don’t know the reason why they broke up though, could it be that she didn’t want to live a lie anymore? In any case, yeah it’s so troublesome what Lance got away with, good thing it all finally came to light.

Ahah yeah, there are a bunch of people in Tour De France who were doping it’s just Lance went to such length to cover it up, so the real scandal is not about the doping but more about his abuse of power.

All these films are new to me. I’m a fan of short films (and horror), so I’ll be sure to note those! Which was your favorite short film from the festival? I’m guessing Dead of Winter, since you added the image 🙂

The Armstrong Lie feels like a must watch. If he wasn’t caught, he would have gone down as one of the greatest athletes of all-time. People were saying he had one of the lowest rest-heart-rates ever and so on. Even without the scandal his life would have been an interesting documentary. With it, its an even more compelling watch!

Hello I’m Ruth!

Film is in my blood. LOVE movies of all genres, from Jane Austen to James Bond. Official blogger for the Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF). I’ve wrote and produced my first short film » HEARTS WANT in 2017 and currently working on developing the full story as a feature film.